Hotel Fauchère, Milford, Pike County

Yes, friends, you read that correctly - quite unexpectedly, I'm debuting my first marker post for Pike County this week! My bff Andrea's aunt recently took a trip out that way with her boyfriend, and he was so kind as to stop and grab a couple of pictures for her to send to me. Their timing was amazing, because I had literally just been trying to decide what to do for this week's post when the text came through. Thanks again, Jeff and Donna!

This is an interesting one, because the exact nature of the historical significance isn't immediately apparent. But as it turns out, it's a rather unique one.

The marker stands in front of the hotel, at the 
intersection of Broad and Catherine Streets.
Image courtesy of Jeff Bush.

The community of Milford, which is the seat of Pike County, has a history dating back to just after the American Revolution. The Hotel Fauchère doesn't go back quite that far, but it's been there for most of that time.

The hotel's story dates back to the early 19th century, when it was owned by an immigrant family who had come to Pennsylvania and established themselves as part of Milford's French settlement. Meanwhile, in Vevey, Switzerland, a boy named Louis Fauchère was born on March 4, 1823. He was one of the youngest of his parents' thirteen children, and his father died when he was not yet three years old. I don't see a record of his parents' names, but according to my sources, the Fauchère family had been chefs and hoteliers for several generations, so his talents were clearly in the blood.

At fifteen years old, Louis became apprenticed to a cook, and spent the next few years working in various highly-regarded hotels in his native Switzerland. When he was 23 years old he married Rosalie Perrochet, the daughter of a successful distiller, and in 1848 she gave birth to their only child, Marie Victorine. Three years later, on June 2, 1851, the Fauchères arrived in New York to investigate the opportunities in the United States. Louis found work as a chef in a hotel and restaurant owned by a family named Delmonico.

(If that name sounds familiar, it's for good reason. Delmonico's hotel and restaurant was the birthplace of the Delmonico steak. However, that didn't happen until 1937, so Louis had nothing to do with it.)

Louis worked for the Delmonicos for two years, then spent five years as a chef in a couple locations in and around Albany. With this experience under his belt, he returned to New York City and went into business for himself, operating a French restaurant and hotel. Meanwhile, remember what I mentioned about the immigrant family who had settled in Milford? Well, as it happens, they were relatives of Louis's wife Rosalie, and in 1867, the Fauchères relocated to Milford and settled there for the rest of their lives. Louis bought out his in-laws and took over the operations of what was known as "the French Hotel." Under his management, the facility enjoyed tremendous success; offering what the website describes as "innovative cuisine and stylish innkeeping," his hotel and restaurant were incredibly popular.

As natives of Switzerland, Louis and Rosalie's first language was French. Louis became known in Milford as "the crazy Frenchman," even though he was neither crazy nor French, but the reason for the nickname has been lost to time. 

In Milford, this era was the heyday of fashionable hotels. The community's only real industry was tourism, and within its borders there were several large and well-regarded establishments. Most of these have since either burned down or been converted to apartments, though a couple are still in business. They all enjoyed a degree of fame, but none were more widely known than the Hotel Fauchère. Louis probably at least partially designed it himself, and built it on the site of the hotel he had purchased from his in-laws, though no record exists of the architect's identity. The main building was constructed in an Italianate style frame, three stories with a flat roof; it was constructed in 1880. With many windows, an elegant porch with turned pillars and pair banisters, and multiple exterior stairways, it was (and still is) considered one of Milford's most beautiful buildings. It offered 18 sleeping rooms and a stunning glass-enclosed dining room which offered patrons a lovely view. In 1907 they expanded by purchasing the house next door, dubbing it the Fauchère Annex; it served as the family's residence, as well as providing extra rooms for guests and a laundry facility for the hotel. Louis frequently traveled throughout Europe to purchase the best furnishings for his establishment.

Image courtesy of Jeff Bush.

Over time the hotel turned into a complex, with multiple buildings on the plot. Of these, the best-known and arguably most significant was a red brick house on Catherine Street known as Delmonico's Cottage. Louis remained friends with the Delmonico brothers who had given him his first job in America, and they liked to make the trip down to visit his beautiful establishment. Because of the illustrious fame of Delmonico's Restaurant, just being able to say that he had worked for them would have been a feather in the cap for Louis - but to be able to call them friends, and have them come to stay at his hotel, was a prestige that almost no one else could match. To this day, part of the hotel (as seen in the photo here) is known as the Delmonico Room in their memory.

Louis continued to personally oversee the workings of his hotel until 1892, when he finally retired and handed the reins to his daughter Marie. He passed away the following year and is buried in Milford. Marie was married twice; her first husband, Alfred Chol, was the father of her four children. Some time after his death, she remarried Henri Tissot, a fellow Swiss native, and both her second husband and her son Warren helped to run the hotel. Warren eventually took over for his mother, and the operation of the Fauchère remained in the hands of Louis's descendants until it finally closed in 1976. A few years later it was purchased and reopened, and the current owners work to maintain the same high standards which Louis first imposed more than a century ago.

So thus far, we've worked out that the Hotel Fauchère was a huge success and had a connection to the most famous restaurant in 19th century America. But as interesting as those facts are, they wouldn't be enough to make it qualify for a historical marker. Here's what does:

Milford was the home of a man named Gifford Pinchot. His home, Grey Towers, is a National Historic Site, and he himself has no less than three different historical markers of his own. If his name rings a bell, it might be because he served two terms as governor of Pennsylvania; but more to the point, he was the founding father of the modern conservation movement. Gifford was also the first person to serve as head of the United States Forest Service, and more than a century ago, he was pushing for people to be more careful about their use of natural resources and to stop despoiling natural beauty. He was joined in this by probably the country's most celebrated conservationist, President Teddy Roosevelt. 

Milford proudly claims to be the birthplace of the conservation movement, and the hotel is part of that. Gifford and Teddy were dining at the Fauchère one evening and discussing their mutual interest in the subject. Teddy took a cloth napkin and sketched out their plans for a new project that would help to preserve some of the nation's wild spaces. According to a news clipping released when the Hotel Fauchère celebrated its centennial in 1952, Gifford took the napkin home with him. He later had his personal driver bring it back to the hotel, freshly cleaned and pressed. Out of that single dinner meeting came the creation of one of this country's greatest public treasures - the National Park Service.

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Sources and Further Reading:

Official website of the Hotel Fauchère

The hotel's application for the National Register of Historic Places

Rosenthal, Marilyn. "The end of an era: Sean Strub sells the Hotel Fauchère." Pike County Courier, September 30, 2021.

Louis Fauchère at FindAGrave.com

Hotel Fauchère at the Historical Marker Database 

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Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.